4 Common SEO Mistakes That People Are Making Without Knowing the Consequences
Mistakes are a part of the learning process – this is a fine point indeed, but what if the mistakes we make cost us more than we can pay and they result in failure?
Perhaps we would be better off embracing the motto ‘failure is not an option’ and strive our best to learn from the mistakes others made instead of having to go through them on our own.
You can take advantage of SEO Experts and what they have to offer when it comes to making sure you stick to a great content strategy. Search engine optimization is not a one-piece puzzle; that is why you might want to team up with specialists.
Regarding the world of business, the field of potential mistakes is substantial but there is one field in which mistakes lead to people not being able to see your website at all – SEO.
Image Source – Pexels.com
Those who are working regularly on their SEO strategy know that this is a changeable field which is exactly the reason why we need to learn from other businesses’ mistakes.
So, here is an overview of the most common SEO mistakes that your business may be making without even knowing it.
Also check, these common mistakes that most bloggers do.
Keywords-related issues
Most businesses have by now learned about the importance of keywords as a part of their SEO efforts but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they know how to apply them efficiently.
Namely, a lot of small business owners believe that the trick is in collecting all the possible key phrases. This is, of course, an essential element but it is not the only one.
There is a difference between whether you are optimizing an e-commerce platform or a blog – you have to combine those topical keywords you accumulated with other words.
For instance, you will use ‘how-to’ for a blog because of its informative nature, while ‘online shop’ will suit an e-commerce website more.
Also, you need to be monitoring the popularity of keywords, for example via Google Trends, to check if that subject is popular in the country you are targeting.
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t use your target keywords in every sentence so as not to overstuff the content.
Content is not of high quality
The content you publish, among other features, must be your very own because Google penalizes websites for scraped content, which is the content that was copied and pasted from another source.
A thin content also won’t help your SEO strategy because duplicate pages or doorway pages have no real use from the readers’ perspective.
Both scraped and thin content guarantee a high bounce rate which is a one-way ticket down on Google’s ranking list.
So, as mentioned, aim to create content that is relevant for your keywords to they would fit it naturally, as well as for the content to be original and engaging.
In addition to that, pay attention to the structure and if it is a blog post or a longer text, make sure you break it into readable chunks.
Spelling and grammar mistakes are something that shouldn’t be tolerated while adding visuals to accompany and enrich the content is preferable. So, quality content is of immense importance to your rank.
Image source: Pexels.com
Not understanding how your website works
The technical side of SEO is also essential simply because, no matter how impressive your website content or your e-commerce offer might be, if your website doesn’t load in 2-3 seconds, your audience won’t stick around to see any of it.
We live in a fast-paced world that makes us hungry for information but also impatient and this is precisely the reason to improve your website loading speed.
Another important notion is your website and consequently your brand’s security. There are people out there who wouldn’t have a problem with stealing your brand’s identity to scam others.
This is why you need to prioritize domain name security which includes registering variations of your domain name, opting for a trustworthy domain registrar, regardless of which domain registry you choose.
Domain name security can be further protected with Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and a Registry Lock because ending up on the list of blacklisted domains will not help your SEO efforts.
The website is not mobile-friendly
Chances that you haven’t noticed the expansion in the usage of smartphones for purposes other than communicating are minuscule.
It is enough to raise your head from your smartphone and you will notice that everyone else’s is glued to the mobile screen as well.
What’s important from the business perspective is that people often search for information and do their shopping using their smartphones.
This is precisely the reason why you need to optimize your website and/or blog for mobile users and what you need to insist on is that it’s not only supposed to look OK on a smaller screen but to also be fully functional.
In July 2018, Google has proclaimed that mobile page speed has become a crucial ranking factor in mobile search results which means that the impatience of the smartphone users has become a matter of interest to businesses.
So, your task is to also ensure your website is loaded quickly and that it runs smoothly on mobile phones.
You aren’t active across social media
If you see social media just as another element you need to worry about, and not as a tool of excellence, you might have a problem on your hands.
Having a business profile on Facebook was at some point considered a competitive advantage but it has become unavoidable for any business that wishes to succeed.
The only difference is that we have a few new social networks and that old tricks to get noticed no longer work.
If this seems like a vast field that can take up a lot of your time, the good news is that you don’t need to be present on all social media. Analyze your audience and target the social network that they prefer to use.
Start using the profile(s) to promote your website content and you will soon notice its SEO benefits as well as an increase in website traffic.
Don’t forget to interlink the website with the social media profiles by placing buttons that will lead directly to them.
All in all, social media are the domain worth investing your time and effort and it would be a mistake not to leverage their immense power.
Over to you
Naturally, it is entirely up to you to choose the elements of your strategy you will focus on, but what is important is to actively participate at all times.
You may make a mistake or two on your own, however, it is always more prudent to learn from mistakes somebody else made and ensure you don’t make them yourself.
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